Home & Garden

Ex-nursery fills gap in the market

By Karen Bate

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk An overgrown and neglected former nursery just outside Crossways near Dorchester, has been transformed into a thriving market garden on a ‘very small budget.’ Inspired by selfsufficiency, Lily and her mother Nicky, the former head gardener at Athelhampton House, have launched the Edible Acre and will be selling their produce in vegetable boxes from June with the excess being sold to restaurants and pubs. Lily said: “Growing food which is enough and more to feed the local community can take us away from relying on the giant supermarkets. “We wanted to do this especially having noticed the fragility in the current world’s food systems which have been exacerbated by covid and Brexit. “We had also heard from friends and many other people that there is a want and a need for locally produced fresh food. “This motivated us to push on with our idea of creating a local market garden.” Without further ado, Lily and her mum got digging and clearing the plot ready for planting, with the harvest ready in just a matter of weeks. “We took on the site as a disused nursery which had not been open and used for six years. Nature had completely taken hold and over the last six months we have been working with the help of family and friends to bring it back into use as a small-scale food production site, reusing most of what we could and doing the best within a very small budget.” Lily is part of a large family, who have always been interested in selfsufficiency, looking after and growing in a multiple of vegetable plots and allotments, foraging, raising chickens, preserving foods and making wine and beer. “Being has always been a cornerstone of how we have lived,” said Lily, “so creating something like The Edible Acre was always a family dream. As children, we quite often were plucking veg from the garden for dinner as Mum had the pot already on the stove.” Along with selling the produce, Lily has a vision to host and run workshops, hold talk and host events

A GROWING BUSINESS: Edible Acre near Crossways, Dorchester

garden business

on the site. “We want to be a facilitator in sharing knowledge, skills and experiences for fellow growers, people interested in sustainability, and local people. We have hosted small plant sales from The Edible Acre, specialising in interesting and perennial vegetables as well as heritage tomatoes and other crops. These are short and seasonal and only available in spring and autumn.”

n If you would like to find out more and order a vegetable box, go the theedibleacre.co.uk

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36 The West Dorset Magazine, May 6, 2022 Homes & Gardens Horticulture...

...with botanist Dr Dave Aplin

Born and bred in West Dorset, Dave has worked in horticulture and botany locally and internationally, notably in Belgium, Jordan and the UAE. He brings a wealth of practical knowledge with its underlying principles to his writing

Get to grips with gastropod gannets

Some of gardeners’ biggest foes, slugs and snails, are no longer considered pests in the eyes of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Despite their ability to munch through seedlings and young plants during their nocturnal escapades, the benefits they provide to the ecosystem far outweigh the havoc they cause, and the effects chemicals to control them have on wildlife. There are over 40 species of slug in the UK, of these only eight are troublesome. Some, like the leopard slug, benefit the gardener by eating other slugs. Snails amount to 100 UK species, but only three or four are responsible for the

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Wild昀ower meadows, veg, fruit, 昀ower, new & established gardens. Fast, accurate & easy to interpret soil report within 7 days www.soilvalues.com 07598 714 082 CATCH US IF YOU CAN: Snails and slugs can do untold damage to your plants slippery trails where your salad plants once grew. That said, the few can cause significant damage to susceptible plants and since they are hermaphrodite, they don’t need two to tango, so they can multiply quickly. Some gardeners have become use to liberally scattering slug pellets containing metaldehyde around their hostas, but since April 1, metaldehyde is been banned from sale due to the unacceptable risks it poses to birds and mammals, especially hedgehogs. So, how do you control these slimy foes? There are multitudes of wonderfully devised methods to deter slugs that have absolutely no, or very little effect. Copper tape, crushed eggshells, the spreading of ashes, soot, gravel, woodchip and coffee grounds or creating mini barriers with prickly or slippery materials might keep you entertained but won’t solve a slug problem. Biological control using mail ordered nematodes (microscopic worms) that you add to a watering-can then apply to the soil surface will reduce these molluscs numbers for a while, but repeat applications are often needed, which can be expensive. No method of their control is pleasant, nematodes enter slugs via there respiratory opening, once there they secrete bacteria that kills the slug. A method I have used a few times that helps on a very local scale is a slug pub. This involves placing a container into the ground, level with the soil and filling it with cheap beer. Slugs and snails are attracted to the beverage, take a sip, fall in and drown. It’s not a perfect method but it may help around those precious plants. Perhaps the best method is a midnight walk with torch in hand gathering slimy beasts as you go, but what you do with your hoard is up to you. If you are not up to nocturnal wanderings, then elevating slates, just above the ground will create a place of daytime refuge for these slippery guests that can be regularly checked. A word of warning, if you are going to rehome them then make sure it is over 20 meters from your garden, scientific studies have shown that a snail’s homing instinct is greatly reduced after a 20-meter excursion. Finally, slugs and snails are mainly a problem for certain plants when they are small. Dry periods also present relatively few problems from slugs and snails, with snails estivating (dormant) until rains fall once more.

The West Dorset Magazine, May 6, 2022 37 Homes & Gardens Group still unhappy about Duchy rule

A pressure group has vowed to continue its fight with the Duchy of Cornwall to stop the rot in the window frames of their homes. Poundbury Windows Group made national headlines earlier this year over their campaign to replace rotting wooden window frames in the Duchy’s buildings. The group claims ‘shortsighted’ Duchy rules about sustainable building materials are having a negative impact on the buildings and on residents’ lives. The group said a letter to the pressure group by the Duchy asked that the ‘dialogue is discontinued’ on the windows issue. Mr Moorby said: “Our only armaments in this fight are pen and paper; we’re not prepared to glue ourselves to the road or make a big fuss in that way, but this is not the end of the fight. We’ve got a Poundbury Residents’ Association meeting in a few weeks’ time and that should get pretty exciting. There are a lot of people who are still very unhappy over this. “Poundbury’s looking bloody awful at the moment quite frankly, with its peeling paint and its rotting timber frames and the Duchy needs to do something about it.” Mr Moorby added: “The problem with wooden frames is that the paint soon cracks and peels. Even with regular maintenance, rain gets into the wood which then rots and has to be repaired or replaced after only a few years at great expense. The ‘wood only’ rule is not only putting the residents to unnecessary extra cost and inconvenience, but it is also making Poundbury look prematurely shabby. “Modern materials are far more suitable for exterior doors and window frames because they are weatherproof, durable, low maintenance, affordable, energy-efficient and recyclable. Not only can they replicate traditional designs and look just like freshly painted wood, but they will retain those good looks for years. “The Duchy’s acceptance of modern materials seems to depend on how visible they are. If the materials are pretty much out-of-sight, like pipework and cavity closure fittings, then they are tolerated. “Otherwise, the Duchy raises one argument after another against them – and particularly against uPVC.” The Duchy of Cornwall did not respond to our request for a comment.

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